Most movies revolving around gambling comes with some inherent drama because of their nature, which is a risk. The film portrays some dangerous acts of imprudent yet incautious putting in a line of one’s money in the desperate hope of hitting significant wins. These movies bring out characters who cannot get enough of the trade. Most directors mark these characters with a disoriented life far from calm life.
The following are some of the best gambling movies in the industry, both current and of a few decades ago.
1. 21 (2008)
21 is a gambling movie that gets based on a true story of a blackjack team from MIT that went ahead and managed to beat the house for almost a decade. The film turns out to be a fascinating and exciting movie involving math and business setting. But The storyline is based on a kind of dumb heist with a bunch of young men yet extremely handsome actors. These actors include Kate Bosworth, Aaron Yoo, Jacob Pitts, Jim Sturgess, and Josh Gad, who suspiciously work together in beating Kevin Spacy. Kate Spacey made this movie get castigated as it got criticized for whitewashing her while casting. They get accused of representing and turning an Asian – American who played a role in a real-life scenario to a purely white man affair. In one horrific incident, the character by the name Kate Spacey gets in trouble, and she is kidnapped and badly beaten up while in her room, but this exposed the movie on how exciting science can get applied in smart gambling as a whole. This fascinating scene is only brought to our attention briefly.
2. The Cooler
This fantastic movie got released to the audience in the year 2003, and it brought out some of the best likable indies qualities. William H. Macy plays the leading role as Bernie, who is a professional gambling loser. Bernie is committed to only one job, which is ruining all high rollers hot streak. He does so by intuitively playing the same craps table. The genesis of The Cooler is a funny but rather sad character who is trying very hard to recover from gambling addiction. But unfortunately, this character has colossal debts to one Alec Baldwin. Baldwin gets represented as a no-nonsense turf casino boss. To pay his dues to Alec Baldwin, he has to work as the go-to guy or naturally the cooler. But Something extraordinary happens and he falls in love with a fantastic woman by the name Maria Bello, who acts as a weary Cocktail waitress, might change the go-to cooler guy. At some point, the scenes are turned to romance acts, and realism got given a backseat. The cast shifts to crowd-pleasing as one Wayne Kramer directs it, but this doesn’t last long as the setup changes. But if there is one character who executes her role with precision in the cooler is Macy, who, despite all failures, bets on herself strongly.
3. Molly’s Game
The Oscar award-winning Molly Game got released in 2017, and it features Aaron Sorkin’s Showy, who plays a know it all character. The whole movie got cast on Molly, the Bloom memoir, which is a former skier champion who moves from one career to another after experiencing a terrible accident, he turns his focus the poker underground world. The leading character Molly which is played by Jessica Chastain takes us through illegal gambling, which is super addictive but highly rewarding. She raises the ladder to become one of the successful queens in organizing very high stakes casino games. Molly’s Game got cast around a thriller with Molly, who enjoys her cleverness, which later turns out to be Sorkin’s most significant shortcoming.
Throughout the movie, you will feel Molly’s rush, and you will encounter some of the characters whose experiences are heartbreaking. One such character with a hard gambling life is Bill Camp, and he plays the role of a hopeless gambler. Bill Camp ends drowning in one of the Molly game’s horrifying scenes in a kind of slow motion.
4. The colour of money
The colour of money is an Oscar award-winning gambling movie which got released in the year 1986. The thriller got directed by Paul Newman and featured Fast Eddie Felson as the lead character. The film gets cast around an aging pool shark, which is at a crossroads. He struggles with gambling and in a series of conversations with Scorsese, who continuously urges him to stop the addiction. We get accustomed to a ruined Eddie whose life has been destroyed by gambling and turned him to a nobody who irks a living through selling cheap liquor. The lead character Eddie Felson despite having his life ruined by gambling, cannot resist the temptations of the Game, and this includes living up to the real Game of life, not just the pool. The director of the film throws some cautionary tone here and there concerning gambling. The directors bring out the lead characters of the Game as characters who have lost it in life, and the gambling game has shown them their back.
5. Uncut Gems
The Uncut Gems is a gambling movie released in 2019 and is famous for the social media meme “This is how I win.” The scenes around the thriller are usually heartbreaking, but the lead characters Josh and Benny Safdie make the whole concept incredibly intense and concisely nerve-wracking altogether. The director of this thriller casts Howard, who is played by Adam Sandler, and he comes into the picture portrayed as a hopeless addict of gambling who has no control of his life until it gets destroyed. Uncut Gems brilliantly captures our attention with Howard’s ability to get ourselves overwhelmed with his sickness. He creatively throws some possibilities to us that Howard may get out of this misery and eventually register a win. With no iota of morality, the character Safdie injects some mania into his body veins, which in turn runs a crazy doomed rush. The film is addictive, just like gambling, and you may find yourself going back to the beginning once you watch the season finale.
6. The California Split
The movie gets directed by Robert Altman with a lead character Charlie played by Elliot Gould as a gambler who masters the art of befriending other gamblers like Bill. Elliot admits to the director of the movie that he likes playing the role of Charlie. Charlie comes into the picture portrayed as an addicted gambler whose addiction is very severe. Charlie is introduced to us while working as a Segal, who has no interest in any gambling. Charlie and Bill’s friendship grows to a tremendous beautiful exploration with a rakish charm. The movie casts some charming but dangerous gambling with risky oddballs to the characters who participate in the Game.
There are plenty of movies related to gamblers and gambling as a whole. As seen above, most directors of these movies always try bringing out the real sides of gambling. Most gamblers get brought to us as addicts who, in most cases, ruin their life with gambling addiction. The illegal underground in most casinos and gambling gets highlighted in most casinos and gambling movies.
